Speaker could be the first casualty of RHI scandal

Posted By: December 24, 2016

Robin Newton is facing calls to vacate the speaker’s office

Newton Emerson. Irish News (Belfast). Saturday, December 24, 2016

The first casualty of the RHI scandal could be DUP speaker Robin Newton (no relation). At an emergency session of the Assembly on Monday, he was unable to explain what law, precedent or standing order enabled him to call Arlene Foster for a statement as First Minister, although Martin McGuinness had made it clear she was not acting with the authority of their joint office.

The Speaker is supposed to represent backbenchers rather than the executive, let alone one-half of the executive. Every main party apart from the DUP has now called for his head, but predictably this will not be enough because a Speaker can only be forcibly removed by the cross-community election of a replacement, which would require the DUP and Sinn Féin acting together. Throw in all the back-room dealing both parties have done to divide the spoils of the Speaker’s office and Newton’s continued survival becomes emblematic of Stormont’s wider problems.

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For an insight into Arlene Foster’s attitude to accountability, it is hard to beat a story in this Monday’s News Letter. The paper discovered a 2012 legislative document on a regulation of the RHI scheme. Foster had signed its declaration, which said: “I have read the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) and I am satisfied that the benefits justify the costs.” Bang to rights? Not a bit of it. In an Assembly response that afternoon, prompted by a party colleague and thus presumably arranged, Foster said the document promised a review of subsidy payments by 2014, which was not carried out. So it was all her officials’ fault. Indeed, Foster was the victim of their inaction. “As minister, I have the right to expect that risks identified in a RIA would be managed by officials,” she told the chamber. Perhaps the Human Rights Commission should hold an inquiry.

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In further damp squib documentation, self-styled whistleblower Jonathan Bell (should we call him the bell-ringer?) gave a brief, dramatic statement in Stormont’s great hall demanding the release of a civil service email containing “critical information” on how RHI was wound up. His theatrical recitation of the message’s identification code promised precision revelations, with a hint of cloak-and-dagger suppression. Yet when the email was released the following day it appeared to back Foster’s version of events. It is becoming clear that Bell went off half-cocked in defense of his role in the scheme. Meanwhile, the DUP has reportedly sourced four bullying allegations against him – although as two are from men, Foster’s initial claim that Bell picked on women now looks hasty as well.

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At the emergency assembly session on RHI, Sinn Féin’s response was handled by its health minister Michelle O’Neill. This was courageous, as in her previous post at agriculture O’Neill notoriously glossed over a £100 million EU subsidy fine racked up by herself and her party predecessor Michelle Gildernew. Were any of these overspent subsidies used to build overheated barns?

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Green Party leader Steven Agnew has briefly mentioned the trail of expensive problems Arlene Foster has left throughout her ministerial career. It is surprising this is not better known – in fact, keeping it off the radar is the only actual evidence of Foster’s political ability. So it is worth recalling the £232 million bailout of the Presbyterian Mutual Society, the six-year investigation into the Northern Events Company that cost as much as the company wasted and the row over a Giant’s Causeway visitors center that ended, then as now, with Sinn Féin demanding a full public inquiry. Foster was responsible for all of this – or at least her name was on the departmental door, which of course does not mean she considered herself responsible in the slightest.

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The first full figures for 2016 show a 10 per cent increase in Irish passport applications across the year. Most headlines are linking this to Brexit but as 9 per cent took place before June’s EU referendum there must be another explanation. Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs is blaming the European football championships, which is ironic, as Irish people only needed a passport to go to the Euros because of the UK-Ireland common travel area.

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Former US special envoy Richard Haass – the ghost of Christmas crisis past – is hotly tipped to be Donald Trump’s deputy foreign minister, which would do Northern Ireland and especially unionism no favors. Never one to suffer fools gladly – he famously told Gerry Adams to “f*** off” after 9/11 – Haass walked away from his failed Stormont talks three years ago in a state of rather obvious contempt for the DUP, which pulled the plug at the last minute over a statutory code of conduct on parades. He has made little secret of his annoyance since and is now also aghast at Brexit, which he responded to by tweeting about a possible united Ireland. As Haass may well be the only anti-Brexiteer in Trump’s cabinet, this is a double diplomatic disaster for the DUP.

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